[FM20: Life with Chelsea after the ban.]

Ended up with a real mix-bag of a first season, but it was evident that the squad didn't have the required ability to be rotated well enough. 47 wins, 12 draws and 5 losses doesn't seem all too bad but we could only finish third in the league (25-10-3) behind City (12 points ahead) and Liverpool (2 points ahead). Thankfully the rest of the pack was 12+ points behind meaning that as we came to the end of the season with a couple of cup runs ongoing we could rotate a bit.

We ended up losing to City in the CL final which I am happy with, beat Liverpool in the Super Cup and Carabao Cup then beat Spurs in the FA Cup so had a treble of sorts.

The squad for next season has changed somewhat, with eight of the twenty-five being signed in this summer window. There's been an influx of youngsters as well so our total spend is £232m. Outbound we're £332m which includes Barkley to United (£60m), Christensen to Arsenal (£55m), Azpilicueta to Inter (£48.5m) and Batshuayi to Leicester (£26m).

GK: Kepa / Russo (free)

RB: James / Tomori

CB: Rudiger / Zouma

CB: Rugani (£17.5m) / Lascelles (£8m) / Ampadu

LB: Emerson / Marmol (£5.25m)

DM: Jorginho / Chalobah

CM: Kante / Kovacic

CM: Eriksen / Mount / RLC

AMR: Bernardeschi (£44m) / Pulisic

AML: Asensio (£43.5m) / CHO

ST: Chiesa (£52m) / Abraham / Leao (£17m)

There's been interest in Rudiger, Zouma, Kante and Abraham and so far i've been able to swat them away without too many concerns from the players. We'll have to wait and see how long that lasts.

[FM20: Life with Chelsea after the ban.]

7 hours ago, Robioto said:

You will get such a big transfer budget at the end of the season that you are better off releasing Willian, Giroud and Pedro to increase your wage budget and replace them with better younger players on lower wages.

Already having £150m before the end of the season is probably more than enough anyway along with the fact that Giroud and Pedro haven't been overly amazing. Would've still liked to have kept Willian but he's on his way to PSG in the summer.

[FM20: Life with Chelsea after the ban.]

I normally start my yearly Chelsea save after Christmas but with me blitzing through a separate Youth Academy Challenge save quicker than anticipated i've already decided to start this up.

Currently into January first season and unbeaten in all competitions (23-7-0) but we've honestly not looked anything special. Joint top with City after 20 games on the same points and seven points ahead of United in third with a superior goal difference over everyone.

With the transfer ban in effect I thought it would be best to recall a few loans to strengthen the U23 and U18 sides but with quite a few consecutive injuries in the first team, some of those younger players have been featuring sporadically in the first team - Brown, Chalobah and Gilmour the main three to note.

The club vision of limiting players over the age of 30 has put a bit of a spanner in the works, especially for those whose contracts are expiring at the end of the season as the maximum length you can offer is to the end of the season. I guess the only saving grace from this is that Giroud and Pedro haven't performed when given the chance and although Willian is leading the scoring charts with 12 goals so far, I can't envisage him being first choice next season when we get to sign players. 

[The Football Manager Youth Academy Challenge]

Scarborough Athletic

Season 1 Review - 2019/20

Table |-| Squad |-| Transfers |-| Finances |-| Season History

Overall, a promising season. Being the ninth best team in terms of conceding goals helped, especially because we were the fourth worst when it came to finding the back of the net. If we were more prolific, we would've certainly been pushing for a top ten place but I definitely can't complain at a solid 15th placed finish with 51 points.

As I primarily focused on the league, both the FA Cup and FA Trophy took a back seat in terms of squad selection and rotation. We still came out fighting though, reaching the 4th Qualifying Round of the FA Cup and 3rd Round of the FA Trophy.

A few of the players who I thought would be leaving because they didn't want to renew their contracts ended up staying on rolling contracts which helped us massively - Will Annan being the main player to keep us afloat.

 

We're also having to rent out another stadium because our current stadium does not meet the league's requirements - thankfully the bank balance is good enough to cover this.

Youth Intake |-| Jeff Stubbins 20a |-| John Shires 20b |-| Pat Fitzpatrick 20c

Our Youth Intake shows a lot of promise if these players can develop on part time contracts, however none of them are truly up to the scratch of first team football and only ended up with a handful of minutes between them. Hopefully they feature more next season, which may be down to my hand being forced rather than choice.

[The Football Manager Youth Academy Challenge]

11 hours ago, janesy20 said:

Really don't understand how everyone in the English leagues are getting such good youth intakes. I have played a season as scarborough athletic and survived quite comfortably, have a fairly good HoYD for the level and have improved youth recruitment and junior coaching but there was barely any talent and the current ability was 3 silver stars so a way to go before they can play in the side! Long slog I feel.

Tempted by the Bari save. Just holidaying in Italy now to have a look.

I'm playing as Scarborough as well and the facilities don't even come close to some of the other sides people are playing as - Kettering for example. Facility improvements won't warrant instant improvements either, you'll only see the difference a couple of seasons down the line.

[The Football Manager Youth Academy Challenge]

Scarborough Athletic

Prelude - Season 1

Manager Profile |-| Club History |-| Facilities |-| Starting Squad

I was originally going to attempt to play with a lower repped team however due to impatience and a team other than Kettering/Gainsborough/Hornchurch showing up, I had a quick look at Scarborough Athletic and thought i'd go with them, mainly due to their history of being a continuation of Scarborough FC who had reached the lofty heights of the old Division Three in the nineties. In addition to this whilst Yorkshire has a fair few teams in the area, there aren't as many out towards the coast which should hopefully aid in youth intakes somewhat.

I've done the Youth Academy Challenge on numerous iterations of Football Manager but never in England, so this is a new test for me. Facilities and retention of players are the two key components so i'm pleased with what we start with - decent facilities which surely have good expansion options and £70k to start in the kitty which should tie us over for the season. A slight issue is going to be the squad size - 23 players at the moment with two retiring and another four not wanting to renew their contracts.

This could be a long opening season.